Meteorologist turned novelist, Maria V. Snyder has been writing fantasy and science fiction since she was bored at work and needed something creative to do. A dozen novels and numerous short stories later, Maria’s learned a thing or three about writing. She’s been on the New York Times bestseller list, won a half-dozen awards, and has earned her MA degree in Writing from Seton Hill University where she’s been happily sharing her knowledge with the current crop of MFA students. She also enjoys creating new worlds where horses and swords rule, ’cause let’s face it, they’re cool, although she’s been known to trap her poor characters in a giant metal cube and let them figure out how to get out.
Today, on publication day for her new novel Defending the Galaxy (the thrilling finale to the Sentinels of the Galaxy series), Maria V. Snyder is on the blog to tell us about her all-time favourite sci-fi reads. Read on …
Maria V. Snyder
The Great Escape
At the beginning of 2020, I was quite excited. I’d just finished the first draft of Defending the Galaxy, book three of my Sentinels of the Galaxy science-fiction series. It was also my twentieth novel! Woot! As an ex-scientist, my inner geek was pleased with how the numbers matched up. However, 2020 has been all downhill from there. Like so many others, I’ve turned to books to escape the dire headlines.
I started reading science fiction when I was in eleventh grade. My sister’s boyfriend, now husband, gave me his beat-up copy of The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. Until then all I read were mysteries because my mother is a big mystery fan and she is responsible for my reading addiction. Soon after, I was reading more sci-fi than mysteries. And two years later, I read my first fantasy novel, which was The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, followed soon after by On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony. I was hooked!
Even before Goodreads, I kept a log of all the books I’d read since 1983. I used an old-fashioned notebook and wrote in cursive. I still do it, although now I’m onto my second notebook. I am often asked what my favourite books are, so below are a few of my favourite sci-fi reads to celebrate my soon-to-be-released sci-fi novel!
I’ll start with the oldies.
Jaran by Kate Elliott is a sci-fi epic story that is the first of a four-book series. It’s sci-fi since there is space travel, galaxy-wide empires, aliens, and high tech. But the main character crashes onto a planet of low-tech inhabitants that are unaware of all that, so the rest of the book reads more like a fantasy. The relationship between Tess and Ilya reminds me of the relationship between Yelena and Valek in my Soulfinders series.
Another older release that I love is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Only read the book if you haven’t watched the movie!
One of my favourite sci-fi books is The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper. This is the ultimate girl-power book.
A more recent title that I’ve enjoyed is Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Pieces of a giant robot are found buried all over the world and the main characters are in charge of putting them together and figuring out how to make it work.
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff was one of those books I initially thought was just a gimmick. How can you tell a story with graphics and transcripts? And all those black pages … think of the ink! I soon discovered you can tell a story in that format, and it’s an excellent one – the entire series is worth reading.
Speaking of series, I have to be really engaged in order to read book two and completely hooked to read an entire series without reading anything else in between. There are three series that did that to me! The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman, and The Great Library series by Rachel Caine (this is more fantasy, but has a sci-fi vibe).
And finally a few honourable mentions: Nightchaser by Amanda Bouchet, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, and The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge (the cover is gorgeous!).
I hope you see something listed here that catches your interest and helps you make the great escape from 2020!
What’s your favourite sci-fi book? Please leave a comment and share!
—Defending the Galaxy by Maria V. Snyder (HarperCollins Australia) is out now.
Defending the Galaxy
Sentinels of the Galaxy: Book 3
Year 2522. Oh. My. Stars.
Junior Officer Ara Lawrence here, reporting for duty. Again. It's situation critical for the security team and everyone in the base - including my parents - with a new attack from the looters imminent, a possible galaxy-wide crime conspiracy and an unstoppable alien threat. But this all pales in the face of my mind-blowing discovery about the Q-net. Of course, no one believes me. I'm not sure I believe me. It could just be a stress-induced delusion. That's what my parents seem to...
Comments
December 5, 2020 at 8:10 am
i like all of this book
December 5, 2020 at 8:11 am
thank you